Quote:
Originally Posted by Benjimir
We see a pattern of diminishing through the entire body of Tolkien's Middle-Earth, from even the Valar to the end of the war of the Ring. The Mouth of Sauron is another example of this. A part of The Kings Men of Numenor, the Black Numenorian, who is briefly described in the LOTR as aspiring to follow in the path of Sauron. He is another shadow of a master that was himself a shadow of another.
For that matter, again, you can look to the Valar being directly engaged in fighting Melkor/Morgoth, and the Maiar pitted against Sauron.
Seems as though there is effectively a rule of engagement.
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The law of diminishing returns is very evident in Tolkien's chronology. The decline from Vala to Maia to Man, particularly in the physical overlordship of Arda, is an interesting concept in Middle-earth, but it has as its antecedent Celtic and Welsh mythology, wherein such clans as the Tuatha De Danaan physically shrink to the point they become the trooping fairies often mentioned by W. B. Yeats, or Gawaine, who starts out as demi-god but becomes quite degraded by the time Malory gets a hold of him. So too, Tolkien's Elves fade the longer they stay bound within Middle-earth, and Hobbits shrink (literally) from the sight of us Big Folk.
I suppose it is a way of describing the waning of grandeur and wonder the further man uses science to reduce magic to an algorithm, or perhaps, like the Gaels, it is a way of explaining the coming Christian predominance and the slow death of the old gods.